Real-time onboard processing in space
Support for orbit reconstruction and machine learning inference
Provides radiation tolerance across all orbits


On the 20th, Xilinx launched the 'Kintex® UltraScale™ XQRKU060', a 20nm space-grade FPGA with radiation tolerant (RT) functionality.

The XQRKU060 is a solution capable of unlimited reconfiguration in orbit. With on-orbit reconfiguration capabilities, it features real-time onboard processing and machine learning acceleration, enabling satellite updates in real time and on-demand video and compute to handle complex algorithms. It also delivers peak INT8 performance of up to 5.7 TOPs (Tera Operations per Second), optimized for deep learning.

The Kintex UltraScale XQRKU060 20nm RT FPGA features 2,760 UltraScale DSP slices, delivering up to 1.6 TeraMACs of signal processing compute performance, a more than 10x increase over the previous generation, and improved floating-point computation efficiency. It also provides I/O bandwidth of 32 high-speed transceivers (SerDes) supporting a total bandwidth of up to 400 Gbps at speeds of up to 12.5 Gbps.

Designed in a 40×40mm ceramic package with vibration tolerance and handling capabilities to withstand launch and radiation impacts in harsh orbital environments, the XQRKU060 mitigates Single Event Effects (SEEs). This allows it to meet industry requirements for a variety of orbits, including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO), and NASA's Deep Space Mission.

The XQRKU060 flight unit will be available starting in September, following Xilinx's Class B and Y test processes in compliance with MIL-PRF-38535. Mechanical samples and prototype units are available now. Customers can begin prototyping using the KCU105 evaluation kit or the Kintex UltraScale space development kit.